Three youngsters who thought they had perfected the art of extorting money from unsuspecting individuals were caught red-handed by an alert police constable at Sion station on Saturday.
Sainath Naikar, 19, Rohan Ayub Khan, 25, and Sachin (exact age not given) were held for threatening one Izhar Alam, assaulting him and trying to take his money, the Sion police said.
According to the police, the three would keep an eye on individuals visiting banks in the Sion area, identify a vulnerable person, pick up a quarrel with the person alleging that he eve-teased their sister and then try to rob him.
On Saturday, Izhar and his employer's grandson Altaf came out of the Central Bank branch after withdrawing Rs25,000. Izhar had planned a trip to his native place and Altaf gave him Rs2,000.
The three persons followed the two, and near Sion station one of them caught Izhar by the shirt collar and demanded to know why he was stalking his sister.
Izhar responded saying he did not know them. They assaulted him and demanded he give them the money. Altaf tried to intervene, but they beat him as well.
When a crowd gathered, the three tried to explain that Izhar was troubling their sister, so the bystanders chose not to get involved.
Fortunately for Izhar and Altaf, a constable passing by enquired about what had happened and took them to the police station. Sachin managed to slip away.
Police inspector Dattaram Girap said the truth was revealed during questioning. "The accused used this modus operandi to rob people who used to get out of the bank with cash. People would not come forward to help as they thought that the victim was an eve-teaser," he said.
When the police called Rohan Khan's sister to find out whether she had been troubled by Izhar, she said that the accused had told her in case the cops did come to enquire she should answer in the affirmative.
The police recovered the money the three took from Izhar, They are investigating whether there were previous incidents.
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